


Stiles and Lydia's Spa Days

by SleepDepraved



Series: THE SLIDER [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Background Poly, Background Relationships, Flashbacks, Gen, Lots Of Gossiping, Lydia Martin & Stiles Stilinski Friendship, Minor Reference To Alive Hale Family, Parallel Universes, References To Various Pack Members, References to Knotting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-07
Updated: 2016-04-25
Packaged: 2018-05-31 19:34:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6484789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepDepraved/pseuds/SleepDepraved
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lydia and Stiles, painting their nails, chatting about stuff.<br/>--<br/>Timestamps</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **Timestamps in THE SLIDERS series.**
> 
> Happens after the main events of _I've Missed You For 29 Years_ but before Our Universes Collide In Slow Motion _._

Lydia and Stiles are having a spa day. It’s a tradition that Stiles started with a Lydia from another universe, and now it’s a weekly bonding ritual for them in this one too.

_”Stiles. I’ll let you in on a secret that women have known for ages.” Lydia-2 had told him before bringing him for his first manicure. She was only 1 year older than him, but seemed like she had a lifetime of experience more. Just what exactly happens after graduation that made Lydia like this?_

Spa day starts at the mall. They spend a good hour wandering the beauty isles and skincare shops and pick up anything they feel like. It is important to never pre-buy the items as shopping is part of the tradition.

Then they head back to Lydia’s apartment. It’s quite a small place but it’s right next to the mall which is super convenient. It also has a fancy corner bathtub, of all things, that takes up three quarters of the bathroom and makes no sense in seems almost counterintuitive in such a tiny space. 

The most outstanding thing about the apartment though, is the fact that Lydia owns it. That’s right. She can’t even drink legally, but she is a home owner at age 20.

They’re sitting in front of the TV doing each other’s nails, Lydia’s face covered in seaweed scrub and Stiles’ in volcanic ash. They have the TV on mute, playing Jessica Jones on Netflix. Stiles is already caught up and Lydia doesn’t watch comic themed shows. It’s just a bit of wallpaper while they chat about life and gossip about men.

 

“Jordan doesn’t even like me.” Lydia says. “I don’t know what he saw in me in the first place. We have nothing in common apart from the whole supernatural thing. -- Oh, here, don’t blow on your nails, you might get moisture on it. And the UV in the lamp helps the shellac set.” She carefully passes him a portable nail drying fan lamp.

“You’re awesome though. Surely any man can see that.” Stiles sticks a hand under the dryer, making sure all his fingers have relatively even coverage. God, he’s such a doll sometimes.

“I know I’m awesome, but not for him. I mean c’mon, I like nice things Stiles. I’m not saying he needs to buy my love. I’m not _that_ shallow. But he didn’t get me a gift on my birthday Stiles. No gift! I didn’t even know how to—“ She pauses to check her nails. “He took me out for dinner, which is nice. But it was just _a_ dinner. We went to dinner all the time. You know? Dinner is not the gift.”

Stiles nods. He gets it. Although he’d be more than fine if Derek planned a romantic dinner with no added gifts, Lydia on the other hand was not that kinda gal. Something you’d assume the person dating her would know.

“But I am a _little_ shallow sometimes. Jordan is… pretty nice looking in or out of a uniform. There was a lot I could forgive. Well, for a while.”

Stiles nodded. Sure he knew that it sounded vapid, but it was a spa day. Frivolous gossip was allowed with no judgements in this sacred space.

_”Just be brutally honest. This isn’t Mean Girls. I’m not going to make you write it down in a Burn Book. Everything you say here, is covered by the sister-code.” A 21-year old Lydia-6 had told him when she was explaining the rules of girls night, which was exactly as no-holds-barred as fight club, except instead of trading punches, you traded gossip._

Lydia continues, clearly needing to get this off her chest. “Anyway, he had plenty of rebounds after. It’s not like our breakup was the worst thing. He’s pretty popular with the ladies across the road from the station, you know the ones running that feminist café _Ms.Bean_? He helped them with their vandal problem.”

“That sucks. Not about Jordan. About the vandals.” Stiles points out.

“It’s an all-female enterprise promoting women’s rights, so of course some fucking pricks can’t handle it,” Lydia snarls.

_”Boys and girls are intrinsically different. We’re not the same and we don’t have to be. Being different is not a problem. It’s a gift. The problem with boys is that they think they’re better than girls. The problem with girls is that we let them.” Lydia-7 reminisced to Stiles about the time she used to hide her genius, something he remembered his Lydia doing._

“Do they let Scott in? I hear Scott has a reputation now for being a tramp.” Dog reference points to him.

“They wouldn’t turn away Scott, Stles, reputation or not. Maybe half the club scene in town has been on that bus, but he’s still Scott.” She says, like obviously that’s all it takes and oh boy does it ever.

Scott was first and foremost a loveable puppy. It doesn’t matter what else he did, people were still gonna love him for his charming excitable personality. Well, except during the whole Allison thing. His best friend was not so dependable back then. Allison—it’s like a different lifetime ago for him now.

“I’m surprised Kira is so calm about all that.” Stiles is really REALLY surprised. “I mean, I love her, but she can be kinda intense sometimes. Like if you wrong her, she’ll cut you into a million pieces.” Kira was a naturally upbeat person most of the time, but sometimes…

“She was busy helping me. It was a good distraction for her and I wasn’t going to turn down the extra help. Then her parents shipped her to Princeton, and here we are.” Lydia sounded almost envious of Kira for that. “And like I said—it’s Scott. He’s done so many stupid things, ignored you for a good part of junior year, and yet how many times have you forgiven him? I immune to his ways, but most are not.”

“Good point. You think he’ll stop being such a horndog… or rather, hornwolf, now that I’m back? Bad enough Derek used to stick his penis into all the wrong people, Scott is the alpha. We need him to not smell like every crotch in the greater Beacon area.”

“Yeah. I don’t know. Isaac looked like he was about to throw up after that car ride back from Sacramento.”

“Oh.” Stiles says knowingly. “That is for an entirely different reason.” He waggles his eyebrow at Lydia.

“You love knowing things I don’t, don’t you? Well c’mon, tell me already,” She rolls her eyes at him exasperatedly.

He might as well. Cat’s already out of the bag on that one.

“Scarfwolf is one of Scott’s soulmates. After Allison and Kira, it’s Isaac.”

Lydia’s eyes go wide. “Oh I can see that. Those two have major UST.”

“You know, I can see that happening. Did you tell Scott?”

Stiles snorts. “I told Kira, who told Isaac, who may or may not have told Scott. My money’s on _no_ , because Scott hasn’t yelled at me yet. Either way, my bro will figure it all out on eventually. That’s kinda the point of soulmates. It’s not like we have to do anything for it to happen.” Stiles shrugs. “But I’ll meddle if it gets deperate.”

“You can’t claim to not have already meddled if you told Kira. You know she can’t keep a secret to save her life. And I can’t believe you told her before me.” Lydia gives him a _you know what you did honey_ look.

“I already told you about Jackson. What more do you want from me?” Stiles defends himself.

Lydia looks thoughtful for a moment.

“Speaking of which, can you ask Derek to pick Jackson up from the airport next Saturday. It’s the day before the full moon, and I don’t trust any of the pups to drive except Derek and Peter, and I’m not asking Peter to do it.”

“I’ll tell Derek. Or better yet, I could do it, if the dealer is done painting my baby by then.”

“I cannot believe you convinced Derek to drop 30 grand on brand new car. See, now _that’s_ a gift.”

“Don’t be jealous just cos I’m the one with the cashed up boyfriend now.” Stiles does a hair flick and laughs. “You know he paid sticker price. _Above_ sticker because he didn’t even get them to waive the paint job or any of the customisations. He even paid for the floor mats! Floor mats Lydia.”

“So of course you yelled at him in the dealership, even though he was buying you a ridiculous car.”

“It’s only a Jeep.” It’s not, and he’s glad his new baby isn’t here to listen to him blaspheme the good Jeep name.

“It’s a Jeep **Renegade**. And I thought the whole point of the Renegade was that it wouldn’t need a paintjob. Isn’t there already a bright blue one?”

“Not the kind of blue I wanted,” Stiles points out mock sagely.

“Let me guess. You had to have it in baby blue?”

“Yes.” Stiles swoons. “In iridescent baby blue. My valiant but sensitive steed. First thing I’m going to do is put Derek in the backseat and ride him like a horse. Oooh no. First thing I’m gonna do is give it a name, then I’ll ride Derek in the backseat.”

Lydia winces. “Stiles, don’t be crass.” She pauses. “Wait, ride him like a steed, inside your other steed?” Lydia clearly couldn’t help herself that time.

Stiles bursts out laughing and shaking until he has tears. One of his nails is ruined and needs to be redone.

Lydia only giggles slightly, like she can’t believe she let him make her stoop so low, but still proud of her comeback. She hurriedly regains her composure a moment later.

“I’d have thought you’d have a name for it by now.”

_”Dad wanted to name me Bradley, but after I was born, mom convinced him to go with Ashley instead. Thank fuck, because you just don’t know what a relief a unisex name can be for a trans child growing up.” Lydia-11’s daughter Ashley tells Stiles while she shows him how to put on a lacefront wig._

“I have options. But plan all you like, you don’t name a baby until the moment see it.” Stiles says knowingly.

 

Maybe we should match-make Kira and Jordan.” Lydia proposes as they are waiting for their toes to dry.

“To whom? Each other?” Stiles is genuinely surprised by that match. Especially since he knows Jordan’s soulmate is the very dead Laura Hale. He has no idea who’s Kira is, much to the kitsune’s disappointment.

“Well yeah. Why? Don’t you think it will work?”

Maybe, Stiles thinks. Both of them are good people who also happen to be giant supernatural conduits of energy.

Lydia takes his silence as a negative and frowns. “Well, _I_ think it might be worth trying. Unless we expand the pack, we’re kinda left with few options, and I mean, outsiders are always a risk.”

“Jordan is kinda and outsider.” If Laura were alive, he’d be the future alpha’s mate. But she’s not, and it’s hard for him to find his footing in the pack.

“Yes, but he doesn’t want to be an outsider,” Lydia points out.

This is a strange conversation to be having without Scott. Or is it? Stiles is pretty sure he’s the pack’s second-in-command now that’s back, so maybe Lydia bringing it up with him is her way of testing the waters. And it’s not that Stiles needs much convincing. He wants Jordan to be full pack too. Hellhounds are really handy in a fight, especially with demons.

_”The emergency numbers are on the fridge. Thank you so much for doing this, like, I can’t ever repay you, oh my god!” Jordan-9 tells him frantically as he kisses his kids goodbye and rushes out to surprise Laura at work for their anniversary._

“Is this something you think, or you know?” He asks Lydia.

“Does it matter?” Lydia shrugs.

He guesses not.

“I’ll talk to Scott.”

“Talk to your dad first. He’s Jordan alpha more than Scott is. Get him to suss out Jordan, then bring it to Scott if he wants in.”

Stiles nods.

“And do it soon okay? I don’t Jordan likes the idea of being an outsider, involved but not having any say in matters. We used to be like that you know, you and I. It wasn’t a good feeling.”

“Yeah I’ll talk to my dad tonight.” Stiles promises.

 

“Did you get Danny to sign off on getting the bite?”

“Sorta. Dan-boy was busy with assignments. I told Ethan to ask him. He won’t say no.”

“I bet Ethan loves the idea.” Lydia cranes her toes up with her hands to check the paint job.

Ethan was actually very excited when Stiles floated the idea. Overly so.

_”We might want to change positions Stiles.” Danny-3 informs him whilst grinding into Stiles. “What, why? I like seeing your face.” Stiles whines. “What he means is he’s about to pop a knot and you’ll be glad he didn’t do it while your legs are above his shoulder.” Ethan-3 grunts over Danny’s shoulder as he keeps thrusting eagerly into his mate. “DID YOU SAY KNOT?!” Stiles all but yells._

“Yes well, he would be. And I think Scott is almost entirely over the whole not-wanting-to-be-a-werewolf thing now,” Especially after Liam. “I don’t think he has any moral objections with giving the bite apart from the rejection thing, but we solved that.” Stiles was very proud of that, but also a bit wary of how that knowledge would be used if other packs found out.

“I cannot believe we solved the bite rejection issue in just 2 hours. Surely there are werewolves out there that know how to do that. 2 hours is an unsatisfying amount of time.” They found a cure for bite-rejection in 2 hours, and spent 4 more hours re-testing everything in disbelief.

“There’s no research on it Lyds. Not even small rumours. This is brand new breakthrough science in werewolfing. And it’s not 2 hours. We took weeks to come up with it, other Lydias and I. It was 2 hours at the end of weeks of work.”

Stiles brought back with him plenty of research notes in a moleskine, technically the **Stilinski Grimoire** if you think about it. It had, among other things, research that he’d worked on with various Lydias and Peters including the cure to bite rejection. 

It turned out to be a simple. Once you realise that bite rejection had nothing to do with magic, and everything to do with the immune system, Stiles and Lydia were able to work with Deaton to isolate the antigens that created an immune response and create a formula to supress them. They performed experiments on Scott and Liam’s blood, since Liam was the only beta that Scott made, and synthesised a chemical naturally found in Liam’s plasma. 

The whole thing was put into an easy delivery system by hacking an EpiPen, which had the additional benefit of delivering adrenaline into the body to prevent anaphylaxis. It was simple enough to be made in a veterinarian’s lab.

“T-Lydias, I’ve decided. We call them T-Whomevers and that’s all of them in one. You can number them in your head, as far as I can tell there is only small metaphysical differences. They are all just me. I claim them as my own.” Lydia was changing her mind on what to call them every few days. Stiles didn’t expect the term to last.

“You mean you claim credit for their research.”

“It seems fair. I will not be upstaged by parallel universe versions of myself. I just won’t Stiles. Did you order those EpiPens?”

“Mmm hmm. 10 of them.”

“Get more next time. They’ll make good diplomatic gifts during alliance talks.”

That is what Stiles was afraid of.

“Giving other packs the power to ensure every bite is a success? You think that’s wise? Might bring a lot of attention from hunters.”

“Don’t be daft, Stiles. How they use it is not our responsibility. We’re scientists now. Our responsibility is to save lives. And anyway, fewer deaths mean less reason for hunters to attack, not more. This is freedom Stiles. This gives those who need the bite freedom to choose life without fear of death.”

Stiles wasn’t completely sold.

“We’re changing the course of werewolf history, and we don’t even know how it will change.” Stiles wasn’t disagreeing with Lydia. He was just nervous about standing on the cusp of such a large breakthrough. If werewolves knew how to stop bite rejection, it would alter the way packs prescribe bites. Some may bite more people than necessary that’s true, but others may be less afraid to induct human family members or loved ones into the pack for fear they’d die.

Stiles knew there stood on the precipice of a breakthrough in werewolf life. He had no idea if it would go down in history as a moment of triumph, or one of regret. 

_“Have faith young man. This isn’t progress for the progress sake. Do not fear a step in the right direction.” Lydia-11 can be persuasive when she wanted to be, and she was right most of the time._

He will put his faith in Lydia, like he always has. He stares at his baby blue fingernails. Perfect!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles and Lydia talk about magical affinities.

Lydia passes Stiles back a glowing cube. The moment it touches his hand, the glow recedes and it looks like any regular crystal.

“Wow that was… what did that mean?” Lydia asks bewildered by the magic floating in the room. She’s barely touched the crystal before it started sparkling white light from its core. If Stiles hadn’t held her wrists firmly, she probably would have dropped it immediately.

“That was yellow optical calcite,” Stiles tells her, putting he crystal back in a felt-lined wooden box. “It’s an optical crystal, so that means you have an affinity for foresight, but we already knew that. Yellow or honey coloured stones have to do with intellectual prowess and persistence, but we already knew that too,” Stiles begins explaining. “Calcite, also known as Iceland spar, means many things. You want the good news first, or the bad news?”

“Good news. I have no idea why anyone wants to hear bad news first,” Lydia fidgets nervously, betraying her usual composure.

“Bad news might be overstating it a bit, but okay, good news first. Calcite is a fire and mental affinity gem, so you get two affinities for the price of one. Hooray!” Stiles does a little hand jig, before continuing. “Mental affinity covers things like spacetime manipulation, weather prediction, séances, memory charms, identifying magic types, so on. Ironic, since I’m the one identifying your affinity right now but in future you should be able to do this test for others, or better yet, without the crystals. All in all, Mental is a good affinity to have, albeit mysterious,” he says wiggling his fingers. “I can’t really figure out how its many natures intersect the way I have for EMR affinity. It needs research.” Stiles finishes as he packs all the boxes of Deaton’s crystals away.

Lydia nods her head. “And fire affinity is obviously fire.”

Stiles pulls out a book from his satchel and starts flipping. “More accurately, Rapid Oxidation affinity, or at least that’s my theory.”

“You mean _our_ theory, and yes, they’re more… scientific,” Lydia says, leaning over to look at the page Stiles has landed on. It’s technically a theory Stiles came up with _other Lydiae_ but he doesn’t argue.

_"I am the oldest Lydia you've met, Stiles. Therefore I am more than the others. I am further down the path. You have never met anyone like me," Lydia-11 told him in between soft kisses._

“It says here that fire is also related to death, rot, rust, decay, so maybe it has more to do with oxidation than we suspected. We’ll have to do more research. And as for death, you’re a banshee so it isn’t surprising.”

Lydia sighs. “If that’s supposed to be the good news…” Lydia asks softly, rubbing her fingers on her lap, flatting out the creases in her skirt.

“Relax Lyds. It’s nothing horrible I swear,” Stiles says calmly. “It’s not really about death remember. And as for the bad news, calcite is one of the softer crystals. On the _Mohs hardness scale_ where talc is 1 and diamonds are 10, calcite is about a 3.”

“Right... okay. So I’m not going to be as powerful as you?”

“It’s not about power, but about spark affinity. You have a slight affinity for mental and fire magic but it’s not by much. In terms of being a spark, you’re not actually one at all. You’re a banshee though. You have inherent authority when commanding certain magics. Remember it’s not just affinity, but authority and age. _Affinity_ deals with ease of use, _authority_ deals with your bloodline’s command of power, and _age_ deals with the long history of your focus or incantation language.”

Lydia rolls her eyes. “Yeah yeah, the three A’s. You’re sounding like Deaton the way you love to lecture.”

Stiles mock gasps loudly. “Low blow.”

“What did you pick?” Lydia grins as she asks sweetly.

“The black amethyst. Hardness rating of 7 Mohs. Lightning, or rather EMR affinity as you know, I mean they don’t call it ‘Thor’s Stone’ for nothing. Black is actually just really, really, dark violet which means I have a deeply spiritual and creative side, but it’s also mired in complexity and harder to focus.”

“Explains a lot,” Lydia snorts.

“This is why I don’t get Deaton. He knows this about me, but he makes me train like I’m going to be druid. I can’t. Druids have an affinity for the earth. Lightsparks have below average affinity for earth magic,” Stile sighs thinking back on the last couple of training sessions he’s had with Deaton. The man kept pushing him to recite spells in Greek and Latin and Stiles kept failing. “He made me meditate holding a handful of sand. Sand, Lyds!” Stiles complains flailing his arms, having never really grew of that habit.

“You said—“ Lydia sighs.

“I had to sit bare butt on the cold concrete because it would ‘anchor me’!” Stiles continues ranting.

“Didn’t Scott give you cushion to sit on?” Lydia snorts.

“Only because he’s my best bro and butt was literally falling off from cold after sitting there for 5 hours!”

“Everytime you tell me that story, I swear you add another hour.”

“Lyds! Who’s side are you on?” Stiles whines.

“Fine, that man is too hard headed. You should consider find another teacher instead of complaining about it.”

“Who? Lightsparks are rare. There may be only a handful in the world,” Stiles sighs. “And even if I find one, I can’t even sustain a light charm for more than half a minute. It’s like a level 1 light spell so it’s something I should be able to do easily. Meanwhile I can teleport, which is like a level million spell.”

“They don’t have to be a lightspark, just someone who isn’t a hard headed earthy druid,” Lydia points out. “So, back to me…” 

_"I never wait for anyone to figure things out for me. If no one will tell me the truth, I find it out for myself" Lydia-9 countered coldly when Stiles yells at the pack for deliberately hindering his progress._

Stiles sighs but concedes for now. He flips to the next page and trails his finger down over the page. “Fire spells are weak against water magic, strong against wild magic, synergises with air. Simple enough. Decay spells are weak against earth and stone—I’ve started calling this Geology magic—strong against wild and temperance magic. What the fuck is temperance magic? There are various things to ward against mental magics.” Stiles stops to shake his head. “We might need to test this out and write our own grimoire. _The Science Of Magic: The Stilinski & Martin Grimoire. Preface: No thanks to Alan Deaton._”

“He did lend us these books though. We don’t have to mention him at all. Might be worse,” Lydia considers out loud. She smiles pulls the book from Stiles and closes it. “Okay, enough magic talk. Let’s watch the movie. I wanna see if Seth Rogan is really romantic comedy material,” she says mock girlishly as she puts _Take This Waltz_ on Netflix.

Stiles nods. “You have to tell me how to get this false nail glue gunk off. I swear, at the end of the Earth, when all life has wasted away, and ghosts roam the crusty rubble of civilization, nail glue will somehow still remain.”


End file.
